title: Assessing mental health and psychosocial status in communities exposed to traumatic events: Sri Lanka as an example.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of psychosocial status that could reliably and accurately assess psychosocial functioning in Sinhalese Sri Lankans impacted by traumatic events. A culturally grounded methodology using qualitative data was used to develop and validate the Sri Lankan Index of Psychosocial Status--Adult Version (SLIPSS-A). The SLIPPS-A is a 26-item measure assessing local indicators of distress, with items placed on a frequency scale from 0 (never) to 4 (6-7 days per week). The instrument was administered to 170 Sinhalese Sri Lankans (72% women) between the ages of 21 and 71 years with differing types of trauma exposure. The measure demonstrated excellent reliability (alpha = .92) and was significantly correlated with the Postraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist. Scores on the SLIPSS-A significantly predicted exposure to the tsunami. Factor analysis resulted in the extraction of five factors. The results suggest that the SLIPSS-A could be used as a general measure to assess psychosocial functioning in Sri Lankan rural Sinhalese adults impacted by trauma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, California State University, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA. gfernan2@calstatela.edu
authors.forename: Gaithri A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Fernando
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003469:Culture; D003625:Data Collection; D004190:Disasters / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D055868:Floods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013188:Sri Lanka / Q000453:epidemiology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires